The Stop Button

This issue’s writer Paul Levitz’s magnum opus on the book so far. It’s an action-packed issue—most of the pages are just Justice Society members fighting, whether amongst themselves in the Batcave (holy set-piece, Batman!) or against the Gotham P.D. The cops zap Power Girl with some seventies Earth-Two ray guns and almost kill her; is the reaction for the cops to then try to kill all the superheroes? Earth-Two might not have Apartheid South Africa, but it’s still got killer cops.

Cops versus Justice Society comes after some catch-up. While the heroes found out last All-Star Psycho Pirate had been controlling them and making them dicks, they then had their annual team-up adventure with the Justice League. So they’re just now having a chance to debrief and process. Someone’s trying to console Green Lantern and points out he just saved the world; Lantern whinges about it not being Earth-Two he saved. Psycho Pirate clearly didn’t give him that voluminous gallantry.

After a little more poor communication, the team ends up in their headquarters, where Police Commissioner Bruce Wayne is waiting with his laser gun-armed cops. The Kryptonian casualty leads to fisticuffs and retreat—at this point in the comic, even though the cover promises the JSA in-fighting (and an all-new team member)—it’s a visual miss. Penciller Joe Staton will get to do better work, but he and inker Bob Layton fumble the first showdown.

Things start to improve after there’s a “Batman slapping Robin but for a gag” moment (also, Levitz writes Dick Grayson’s obsequiousness at eleven; he’s a twerp), and then the mystery guest star appears to surveil the retreated Society. They’ve gone to a secret Gothamland hospital for superheroes. The mood’s effective, even if the scene ends with the observer noting the “good guy” superheroes are acting maliciously.

One could put in a pin in that item, but—at least as far as this issue goes—one shouldn’t bother. Levitz throws in big red herrings multiple times just to get to the finish. The narrative contortions he successfully puts this issue through are wild. Especially considering Staton and Layton; their work is much better with the set-piece fight scene, but they’ve still got their limits. They have a good issue: the mystery observer’s second appearance is probably their best work (on the book together), and they can sell the melodramatic ending.

The story has Dr. Fate leading the stars of this comic book against Commissioner Wayne, Robin, Hourman, Starman, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Wonder Woman. Whenever All-Star has needed a body, the writer has thrown in a character from the latter group. Robin even started this All-Star comeback; he was on the original Super-Squad. And Dr. Mid-Nite almost died once—or was it Hourman—it was at least one and probably both.

They’re all of a sudden not second-stringers—Batman’s Red Shirts more than hold their own against the “good guys,” with Robin refusing to listen (and fighting dirty as hell), and Wonder Woman trying to get Green Lantern to chill out and let her lasso him. Starman and Star-Spangled Kid have a bad interchange, considering Kid’s supposed to be Starman’s legacy hero or whatever. But at least Levitz tries. And it gives Staton variety in the intricate fight scenes. So much foreground and background going on.

The finale’s not a surprise, other than what threads Levitz does and doesn’t bring in.

For All-Star, maybe the most successful issue ever. Is there any reason to believe next issue isn’t someone else being revealed to be under Psycho-Pirate’s control? No, but this issue does earn it some hope.